A) We desire to see regularly-meeting adult prayer and Bible study groups which will expand by multiplication, grow and mature into a "pre-congregations", and then into a church. Pray that God would give people a urgent thirst to know him!

B) Our ministry to local kids through Backyard Bible Club for kids continues to exhibit the closest thing to a regularly-meeting group. This past summer we expanded our efforts to minister to kids by providing additional days of Backyard Bible Club and by having various mission teams come alongside us to put on large-scale outreach events!  

When ministry is deliberately done out in the community rather than inside facilities, inclement weather becomes one of our greatest enemies! Pray that as the days grow colder that the hearts of children will grow warmer toward Jesus! Pray that children will be raised up to be a new generation with a renewed conviction for the renown of Jesus and his Bride!

C) Pray for our collegiate ministries. Our campus work at Solex College is becoming increasingly established into the fabric of the campus. Now, new doors are opening up for us at Oakton Community College, at Triton College (again) and at Northeastern Illinois University, too! We are in the midst of planning and strategizing our entry. Pray with us that the Lord will give us favor at these campuses and that he will give us eyes to see where, when, and how to minister to these campuses.

D) Even now we are prayerfully planning our ministries for 2010. We are assembling mission teams, missionaries, material resources, and the neighborhoods for a exciting year of Kingdom-building! Pray to the Lord of the harvest that he would send workers into the field! Pray that the Lord would instruct us in the way to go forward. Pray that his servants would heed the Master's instruction. Pray that God would gather an abundant harvest in 2010!

A) The adoption ball is now rolling with hopes of bring  home a family-less child someday soon. After receiving State of Illinois mandated orientation and training in mid-February, we have finally completed our application packet! Now we have before us home studies, interviews, screenings, as well as the production of a family portfolio. Oh yeah, there's the child, too! Pray that the Lord will give us the pleasure of rescuing a child. We've wrestled with the type of adoption - foreign or domestic - and we've come to the conclusion that with so many family-less children right here in the U.S., it didn't make any sense for us to go looking in Asia, Africa, or Europe, etc. With a Baptist Children's Home and Family Services right here in Illinois, we're moving forward.

    An aside: We know that many of those who stand alongside us in ministry also share our convictions     regarding abortion. In love, we urge you to consider making an authentic and relevant expression of your     convictions by prayerfully ruminating over what we're going to do with all the children whose lives are
    saved by a biological mother's courageous decision to deliver rather than kill. We applaud their actions;
    still, who will raise their children? The government? Who will love them? Planned Parenthood? Who
    will show Jesus to them? The ACLU? If we do nothing but influence legislation to save them (which by
    the way our newly elected "messiah" overturns  as we speak), we have not relevantly addressed the
    lives that must be nurtured in the Lord.

B) Earlier in the year, we had noticed an increased boldness and openness among drug dealers and gangbangers that was not evident during our first year  in Maywood. Drug and gang activity occured in broad daylight with seemingly little concern about the threats of police or neighbors. But you have prayed with us for the Holy Spirit to restrain the Evil One and his minions!  God has powerfully answered! In terms of "violent crime"  2009 has turned into one of the quietest years in recent memory!  Praise God for his might and his protection. Praise him for his justice and compassion! Worship the Lord for he is good!

C) Year TWO will come to a close with the ushering in of the new year. Also, our support from the North American Mission Board will also come to an end. Their support accounts for about 25-30% of our total monthly support. Pray with us that we will indeed find the Lord to be faithful to provide for his own work - that we will find him faithful to take care of his laborers, and that we will always find him to be faithful to complete the work he has started.

Thank you for keeping this at the forefront of your prayers for us! We are confident that God is answering your prayers. We have been meeting more and more people, and many of them welcome us and seem to be persons of peace. Time will tell. For example, just recently, we received what could be called our very first offering from our community. A family gave us a cash gift to say thank you for the ministry that we are doing with our neighborhood kids! It was totally unsolicited and unexpected!

Why do we continue to list this request and why is it so important? We are in a highly cross-cultural context that naturally brings with it additional barriers for engaging our neighbors with the love of Jesus. Finding the true "person(s) of peace" prepared by God is like finding a key which unlocks the door to thruways which were previously inaccessible to us! There are embedded circles of influence which are difficult to penetrate without the help of the "P.O.P." Pray that God would have us meet with the one(s) he has prepared. Whether they are lost people who need to find Jesus or straying saints who need to renew their devotion to Jesus, may God cause our journeys to intersect (2Cor 5:18ff.).

4) ...that God would gloriously redeem...

...the years that the swarming locust have eaten among His people in Maywood (Joel 2:25).

Maywood is busting out at the seams with people who are loved by God - real people with real names and with real needs. As a community with many serious issues we need to make sure we actually live by things like faith, hope, and love instead of just talking about them.

We are not battling a culture that sprang up overnight. It was at least two generations in the making, but we are trusting that God is actively working to to do what he does best - redeem.

Having said that, we're not sure if life in Maywood is not as bad as we had initially thought, or maybe it's actually improved since we arrived. In reality, Maywood is what it is, so that we are convinced that God is answering our requests for courage and boldness. For example, the murder tally was up to 20 in 2003 and has since dropped to 10 or 11 in subsequent years, but in 2008 Maywood murders jumped to 14. Please continue to pray for the crime and violence that burdens our community. It is only as we remember our Father's trustworthiness that all worries and fears melt away.

Pray that God would break the strongholds of lawlessness, complacency, indifference. Pray that God will break the grip of the Evil One in Maywood. Pray that God's faithful remnant will arise and champion revival in the "Village of Eternal Light."

5) ...for the renown of Jesus and for His adornment of His Radiant Bride!

Paul tells us that Jesus is the One who is presenting His Church to Himself as radiant, glorious, and splendid. According to the prophet Isaiah (61:10), the people of God rejoice for it is God who has clothed them in "garments of salvation" and "arrayed" them in a "robe of righteousness." Yet, while the first half of the verse envisions Yahweh doing the dressing of his Bride, the rest of the text implies that the Bride must do the wearing (cf. Rev. 19:8). 

Pray that the people of God would receive and display the adornments of God as a Bride displays her wedding adornments - even as she is herself an adornment to be displayed by God as a "crown of beauty" in the hand of her Bridegroom. Pray that the radiance of the Bride would broadcast the righteousness of her Husband and King, Jesus.

6) ...Pray and Praises for ministry needs

A) Praise God! We have several different mission teams that we've lined up for Summer outreaches and ministries.  Maybe your church or group of friends are interested in coming alongside us?  Don't hesitate to ask how you can get involved; we are a very accommodating missions host.  We're planning on casting our net a bit wider as we outreach to new neighborhoods that are adjacent to ours, and we need help! 

B) In 2009, we had the pleasure of hosting our first two summer missionaries through the North American Mission Board.  Ashley, Kendra, and Claire helped us with ministry in Maywood and in many other ways as well.  God answered prayers for excellent interns and that's exactly what we got!  Now, we  ask you to pray again that the Lord would send us interns in 2010 that are at least equally wonderful.  As of January 2010, we are facing a bit of a housing dilemma as our own housing situation has changed a bit.  Pray also that we God will provide all the resources that are needed to take care of our missionaries.

C) Similarly, we are very excited about the possibility of having our very first advocate who will take the first area of missional partnership to the MAX.  She believes that the Lord is leading her to MOVE TO MAYWOOD!  We won't disclose her name yet, but we ask you to pray that God would affirm her desire to come by providing everything that she needs get situated in Maywood!

D) Pray that God would raise up indigenous harvesters, too.  Having a bunch of Anglo and Asian missionaries serving in a predominantly black community can only go so far.  We plead with God to raise up godly role models (especially young black men) who will tend the King's vineyards!